History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic, vol 3 | Page 6

bitterest enemy the Turks, the
contracting parties, in order to rescue it from this imminent peril, and
preserve inviolate the bond of peace, agree to take possession of his
kingdom and divide it between them. It is then provided that the
northern portion, comprehending the Terra di Lavoro and Abruzzo, be
assigned to France, with the title of King of Naples and Jerusalem, and

the southern, consisting of Apulia and Calabria, with the title of Duke
of those provinces, to Spain. The _dogana_, an important duty levied
on the flocks of the Capitanate, was to be collected by the officers of
the Spanish government, and divided equally with France. Lastly, any
inequality between the respective territories was to be so adjusted, that
the revenues accruing to each of the parties should be precisely equal.
The treaty was to be kept profoundly secret, until preparations were
completed for the simultaneous occupation of the devoted territory by
the combined powers. [17]
Such were the terms of this celebrated compact, by which two
European potentates coolly carved out and divided between them the
entire dominions of a third, who had given no cause for umbrage, and
with whom they were both at that time in perfect peace and amity.
Similar instances of political robbery (to call it by the coarse name it
merits) have occurred in later times; but never one founded on more
flimsy pretexts, or veiled under a more detestable mask of hypocrisy.
The principal odium of the transaction has attached to Ferdinand, as the
kinsman of the unfortunate king of Naples. His conduct, however,
admits of some palliatory considerations, that cannot be claimed for
Louis.
The Aragonese nation always regarded the bequest of Ferdinand's uncle,
Alfonso the Fifth, in favor of his natural offspring as an unwarrantable
and illegal act. The kingdom of Naples had been won by their own
good swords, and, as such, was the rightful inheritance of their own
princes. Nothing but the domestic troubles of his dominions had
prevented John the Second of Aragon, on the decease of his brother,
from asserting his claim by arms. His son, Ferdinand the Catholic, had
hitherto acquiesced in the usurpation of the bastard branch of his house
only from similar causes. On the accession of the present monarch, he
had made some demonstrations of vindicating his pretensions to Naples,
which, however, the intelligence he received from that kingdom
induced him to defer to a more convenient season. [18] But it was
deferring, not relinquishing, his purpose. In the mean time, he carefully
avoided entering into such engagements, as should compel him to a
different policy by connecting his own interests with those of Frederic;
and with this view, no doubt, rejected the alliance, strongly solicited by
the latter, of the duke of Calabria, heir apparent to the Neapolitan

crown, with his third daughter, the infanta Maria. Indeed, this
disposition of Ferdinand, so far from being dissembled, was well
understood by the court of Naples, as is acknowledged by its own
historians. [19]
It may be thought, that the undisturbed succession of four princes to the
throne of Naples, each of whom had received the solemn recognition of
the people, might have healed any defects in their original title,
however glaring. But it may be remarked, in extenuation of both the
French and Spanish claims, that the principles of monarchical
succession were but imperfectly settled in that day; that oaths of
allegiance were tendered too lightly by the Neapolitans, to carry the
same weight as in other nations; and that the prescriptive right derived
from possession, necessarily indeterminate, was greatly weakened in
this case by the comparatively few years, not more than forty, during
which the bastard line of Aragon had occupied the throne,--a period
much shorter than that after which the house of York had in England, a
few years before, successfully contested the validity of the Lancastrian
title. It should be added, that Ferdinand's views appear to have perfectly
corresponded with those of the Spanish nation at large; not one writer
of the time, whom I have met with, intimating the slightest doubt of his
title to Naples, while not a few insist on it with unnecessary emphasis.
[20] It is but fair to state, however, that foreigners, who contemplated
the transaction with a more impartial eye, condemned it as inflicting a
deep stain on the characters of both potentates. Indeed, something like
an apprehension of this, in the parties themselves, may be inferred from
their solicitude to deprecate public censure by masking their designs
under a pretended zeal for religion.
Before the conferences respecting the treaty were brought to a close,
the Spanish armada under Gonsalvo, after a long detention in Sicily,
where it was reinforced by two thousand recruits, who had been serving
as mercenaries in Italy, held